After the decline of French in the Middle English period, a new English standard began to develop.

Two factors where highly influential in this process: the economic and cultural centre within the East-Midlands triangle of Oxford-Cambridge-London, on the one hand, and the introduction of the printing press, on the other.

The Early Modern English period saw the continuation of this process and the increasing social status of English as an effect of printing and other far-reaching social, political, religious, and cultural changes in the Renaissance. In a nutshell, English established itself as a standard language in the Early Modern English period, but it was still in search of its identity.

The period to define the historical context of Early Modern English is the Renaissance. While the Renaissance had already begun in Italy in the 14th century, its beginning in Northern Europe was around 1500. The English Renaissance lasted from about 1500 to 1650.

But what does Renaissance mean? The name for this historical era simply means rebirth; it was coined by the French historian Jules Michelet and was later used by Jacob Burckhardt, a Swiss historian.

The notion of rebirth tries to capture the fact that the cultural and political ideas that shaped this period were fundamentally influenced by a new interest in the classical cultures and civilisations of ancient Rome and Greece. This conceptual rebirth triggered a great number of cultural and political changes that mark the transition from medieval to modern life.

These changes concern the structure and organisation of society, people’s world-views and national identity, the organisation of religious life, and the development of literature and art.

The medieval social system was based on the model of feudalism and was centred around the three estates of nobility, clergy, and peasants.

In England, this system was subject to gradual transformation from the mid-14th century onwards, the Black Death
playing a major role in this process. After the plague, there was a sudden lack of cheap manpower. The lower classes were thus faced with the possibility of claiming wages for provided work. This caused peasants and other craftsmen to free themselves from their former feudal obligations and to become economically self-sufficient.

So, economic interests entered the lower classes of society and gifted craftsmen and merchants started to establish a new, economically defined middle class.

In this process, guilds and powerful trade unions emerged. It is this historical context where one of the stereotypical words to be associated with modern economy has its etymological roots. In Florence, commercial transactions between merchants took place on a small table or counter la banca. It is this context from which the word bank s derived. This indicates how influential these social changes of the early Renaissance are for our modern concept of society.

The transformation of medieval society was accompanied by a transformation of world-view. In the Middle Ages, education and world-view was dominated by scholasticism (derived from Latin schola, 'school'). This school of thought was characterised by its combination of medieval theology with classical philosophy. For instance, Thomas Aquinas, one of the major proponents of the movement used Aristotelian argumentative logic in his attempts to prove the existence of God.

Scholastic thinking was pushed to the background with the advent of humanism. Later, the scholastic method was heavily criticised by the emerging natural sciences.

The astronomers Nicolaus Copernicus and Galileo Galilei falsified the idea of earth being the centre of the universe. In France, René Descartes established rationalist philosophy.

All of these approaches shift the interest of learning from comprehending the world as the kingdom of God to understanding it as a rule-governed natural universe.

In England, this movement towards modern science was fuelled by the highly influential works of the philosopher and empiricist Francis Bacon, the physician William Harvey, or the physicist Isaac Newton.

Economic zeal and greed and the scientific interest in nature and the world triggered a historical development that defines our very present: the expansion of Western economy and culture into the world by sea trade and explorations.

In the late Middle Ages, the North and East Sea were economically dominated by the Hanseatic League, a trade union whose power and influence went well beyond economic matters. London constituted one of the centres of this early form of coordinated international trade.

More importantly, the Renaissance constituted the basis for the Spanish and Portuguese exploration and colonisation of the Americas and Africa. Both of these sea powers brought enormous riches from these far-away continents to Europe.

To start with, England did not play a major role in this process. However, the privateer, merchant, and seaman Francis Drake interfered with the Spanish sea dominion by pirating Spanish merchant ships coming from the Americas, which caused him to be regarded as a national hero in England. Also, he won an important sea battle against the 'invincible' Spanish armada, which earned him the favour of Queen Elizabeth I.

Drake’s achievement on sea are of great importance for the history of England. By interfering with the Spanish sea power, Drake kept the way open for the expansion of England to America and the Southern hemisphere. This defines his status as a pirate in the eyes of Spain and a hero in the eyes of England.

In the domain of religion, the Renaissance experienced the protestant movement and reformation. Unlike the fundamental religious reorientation in Germany (Luther) or Switzerland (Calvin, Zwingli), the reformation of church in England was triggered by idiosyncratic political factors.

King Henry VIII, who was married to Catherine of Aragon, wanted to divorce from his wife and marry Anne Boleyn instead because the queen of Spanish origin did not give birth to a male successor. Since divorce was illegal by Catholic law, Henry asked pope Clement VII to annul the marriage. The pope, however, did not give in. As a consequence, Henry chose to break with the Catholic church by declaring himself Supreme Head of the Church of England.

Disputes and fights between Protestants and Catholics continued with Henry successors to the throne. During her reign, Elizabeth I – the protestant daughter of Henry and Boleyn fought against the Catholic Spaniards (Francis Drake) and eliminated her Catholic archrival Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. Thus, the bloody quarrels between Protestants and Catholics defined this very period.

The reign of Elizabeth, however, was not only stained by bloody and death. Under the leadership of the queen - Elizabeth herself was a very well-read queen in her speeches were highly acclaimed - England experienced a golden age of literature and poetry, music, and architecture: the Elizabethan Age.

It is this period where the studies of modern English literature usually start. The period was shaped by authors such as Shakespeare, Spenser, Marlowe, or Jonson, who all established landmarks in English literature. Shakespeare, obviously the most celebrated of these authors had a considerable impact on the English language.

The golden age of English literature and music indicates that English society was on its way of increasingly developing a strong sense of national identity.

Rather than seeing themselves as belonging to the wider community of Christendom, Renaissance people started to focus on their own national identity. The social, scientific, and religious changes supported this growing sense of national individuality. Thus, the Renaissance established the cultural and political basis for the development of modern nation states.

In England, this development was furthered during the reign of King James I. James was the first king of the four countries of the British Isles.

This first political union formed the basis for the future British Empire, and it was during this phase that England started to become an international power. The development was shattered by two civil wars – both being symptoms of the quarrels underlying the search for a unified kingdom. However, in 1707 the United Kingdom was finally established.

The Union Flag of the United Kingdom of England and Scotland

During the Early Modern English period, the status of English was extended dramatically. After the decline of French in the mid-14th century, English became the language of administration and government. Latin, however, remained the high-prestige lingua franca of learning and wisdom.

By the end of the Early Modern English period, English pushed Latin out of the sociolinguistic scene becoming itself the language of science.

This increase in status, along with the political development of England establishing trade and colonies all over the globe, constitutes the historical basis for English becoming a world-wide language and a lingua franca of business and science.

All of the above mentioned historical changes led to the predominant status of English as the only H-language in Great Britain.

The introduction of the technique of printing must be regarded as a landmark in the spread of written English.

In the 150 years following the introduction of the printing press, nearly 20’000 books appeared. Thanks to the printing press, books could be produced more efficiently, and thus more people got access to written texts.

Printing, however, would not have been influential, if no market had existed for the dissemination of printed books. Printing was, of course, subject to economic constraints: the books had to be sold to make printing a flourishing business. Printers found a great number of customers in the new merchant middle class, people who were interested in learning and had the money to buy books.

The potential readership for books thus included the upper and middle classes – the classes that were literate or increasingly became so. Illiteracy was very high among the lower classes and women.

The new middle class were not learned people and had no knowledge of Latin. They spoke vernacular English and thus also wanted to read English books.

The increased availability of affordable English books further increased the readership of these books, which, consequently, increased the demand for further books. In other words, printing enhanced learning, which, in reverse enhanced printing and the spread of written English. Moreover, in the 16th century, pamphlets emerged as an early form of mass media and around 1620, the first newspapers appeared.

Printing promoted the standardisation process since books had to be written in a style that made them accessible to a large audience from different dialect backgrounds. Thus, a number of spelling rules had to be established by mutual convention. As a result, a rudimentary orthographic system emerged.

The Early Modern period is also called the Age of Bibles since in this period an massive number of Bible translations appeared.

The motivation for these publications lay in the religious controversies of the reformation period. On the one hand, discussions about the gospel had to be made accessible to the public by the reformers, on the other, people themselves became interested in reading the word of God.

Most people attracted by Protestantism were of humble origin and did not have classical education in Latin. They spoke English only. Consequently, Bible translations were needed. English Bibles raised the prestige of English in general, whereas Latin was despised by many as the language of the Pope.

Among others, influential English Bibles such as the Tyndale Bible, the Great Bible, the Geneva Bible, or the Bishops’ Bible were written. In 1611, the King James Bible – also known as the Authorised Bible - was issued. This official translation was worked out by 54 translators who followed strict translation guidelines. The translators aimed at a dignified and somewhat archaic style. Therefore, the language represented in this Bible is conservative. Nevertheless, the many Bible translations provide a very important corpus of written evidence on the state of English in the Early Modern period.

In contrast to the many Bible translations, Shakespeare’s writing supplied English with a great number of innovations.

Shakespeare was one of the central figures to promote the new genre of drama, which developed out of medieval mystery and miracle plays. These play were originally performed during church festivities and dramatised Biblical stories. In the 14th and 15th centuries these plays came to be performed in front of churches on the marketplace.

On the basis of these older forms of performance, a new form of drama was established during the reign of Elizabeth I. The plays written by Marlowe, Shakespeare, and Jonson were performed by professional actors in public theatres, which were built in the late sixties and seventies of the sixteenth century. Of course, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre was the most important and celebrated venue.

Shakespeare wrote his plays as a basis for the performance, but not to be published for readers. The plays belonged to the drama company, which did not want them written down because it wanted people come to the performance. Therefore, pirated versions were often produced by competing actors.

But, the plays were not jazzy improvisation but the performance of Shakespeare's writing. Unfortunately, none of these manuscripts have survived. Later his plays were published as a 'quarto' edition. However, this edition was not edited by Shakespeare himself but by company actors after the performance. Only seven years after Shakespeare’s death the plays appeared as more carefully prepared 'folio' edition.

The editions show that the language used by Shakespeare was highly innovative. Through the celebrated status of his works, a great deal of this innovation flowed into the lexicon of present day English. These Shakespearean influences are known as Shakespearean Firsts.

The lexicon of Early Modern English, was greatly enriched for more reasons than poetic innovation.

Due to international trade and exploration, English speakers made contact with speakers of others languages who brought objects, substances, plants, animals, etc. and corresponding concepts to the continent from the Americas and Africa.

These concepts were not known to European people before; therefore, they needed labelling. The most simple thing to do in this case is to borrow the label used in the original donor language. In this way, a great many new words entered the English vocabulary via Spanish, Arabic, Dutch, Italian, etc.

There was a further realm of exploration and innovation that led to the creation of many new concepts: science.

Since the lingua franca of science was Latin (interspersed with Greek terminology), a great number of loan words entered English from there.

Borrowing became particularly intensive when English started to replace Latin as the language of science by the end of the 17th century. It is significant, for instance, that Newton wrote his Principia in Latin, but later published his Opticks in English.

The influx of non-English, especially Latin, vocabulary was not generally appreciated by all speakers of English. Language purists such as Thomas Wilson opposed this development fiercely by disclaiming the use of these words as a matter of snobbish intellectuals, so-called inkhorn writers. Wilson stated:

Others, however, regarded this process more positively by highlighting the importance of those words for the English language. One of the proponents in favour of loan words was George Pettie:

What historical linguistic conclusion can one draw from this controversy?

The Inkhorn Controversy, basically just being a dispute about what good English is and how good English should be spoken, nicely reflects the sociolinguistic status of English in the Early Modern English period.

For most educated people Latin still had the aura of the stylistic and rhetorical role model. If anything sensible should be written in English, it should follow the prestigious model of Latin. On the other hand, English was in the process of becoming much more self-confident; a language that can adopt all discursive functions, seemingly without being dependent on the lexical support of Latin.

In other words, the Inkhorn controversy reflects the search for a strong English linguistic identity, but it also shows that this linguistic identity had always been subject to influences from a great number of other languages.

Moreover, the statements show that English was in search for linguistic authority because a generally acknowledged standard had not been established yet.

The set of long vowels in English went through a systematic process of raising and diphthongisation between 1300 and 1700. This transformation is known as the Great Vowel Shift. The table below summarizes these changes in chronological order.

The Great Vowel Shift proceeded in the form of a chain reaction. Raising and diphthongisation created structural gaps that were filled by shifting the proximate vowels into those gaps (structural change).

Linguists are not completely sure where in the system this transformation was triggered.

Two conflicting hypotheses exist. On the one hand, the Great Vowel shift can be described as a pull chain. According to this view, the front and back close vowels /i:/ and /u:/ were first dipthongized and then pulled or dragged the other long vowels up. On the other hand, the whole process might have started with the open vowel /a:/, which was raised and thus pushed the other vowels up to trigger a push chain.

From an explanatory historical linguistic perspective, the question of why this chain reaction was effected seems to be of more relevance.

Although it is difficult to reconstruct the actuation of this sound change, it is probable that its origin lay in sociolinguistic variation and stratification in the London area of the early 16th century.

For lower class speakers there seemed to be a tendency to use long mid-close vowels in words where long mid-open vowels would be expected in London Middle English (see Fennell 2001: 160f.). Thus, this pronunciation change can be regarded as a push mechanism (B5 below).

Since the lower-class dialects were stigmatized, upper-class speakers unconsciously started to raise the long vowels in ME /e:/-words themselves in order to maintain the social difference.

This change from below had a pull effect which triggered the redistribution of the pronunciation of words with long vowels. From a sociolinguistic perspective the Great Vowel Shift thus consists of a combination of pull and push factors related to the social stratification of linguistic variables.

The development of the dummy auxiliary do reflects the process of grammaticalisation, i.e. the process of a content word acquiring the status of a grammatical function word. In the grammar of present-day English, do must be used as a contentless grammatical operator in the following contexts:

a) Negation: I do not know.
b) Question: Do you know?
c) Question-tag: You know, do you?
d) Emphatic do: I do know this.

In Early Modern English, the use of do was optional. It only adopted its present grammatical status by the end of the 17th century. Shakespeare, for instance, could write:

If I become not.
I do assure you (non-emphatic).

But where did this operator come from? How was it transformed into a grammatical function word?

One hypothesis is that in Old English the full verb do was polysemous and could be used with a causative meaning in sentences such as:

She did them cook a meal. (= she caused them to cook a meal).

In the South-Western dialects of Old and Middle English, the same construction could be used without the indication of a direct object:

She did cook a meal. (She caused (sb.) to cook a meal, she had a meal cooked).

It is assumed that this construction soon became ambiguous with normal declarative statements (she cooked a meal). In other words, both constructions could be equally used to describe a normal transitive process.

In the transitive construction, do, however, did no longer contribute to the semantics of the sentence; it was merely used as an appendix to the verb – an operator. This operator function then spread to the modern constructions listed above.

Barber, Charles (1993). The English Language: A Historical Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ch. 8: “Early Modern English”.

Crystal, David (1987). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ch. 5: “Early Modern English”.

Jucker, Andreas H. (2000). History of English and English Historical Linguistics. Stuttgart : Ernst Klett, ch. 4: “Early Modern English: Standardisation”.

Good and short introductions to the period.

Fennell, Barbara A. (2001). A History of English. A Sociolinguistic Approach. Oxford: Blackwell.

On the sociolinguistic explanation for the Great Vowel Shift.